Damon Albarn- Dr Dee

BEFORE Blur play at August’s Olympic closing ceremony, Damon Albarn’s “strange pastoral folk” stage production Dr Dee, a homage to the alchemist, mathematician, astrologer and adviser to Elizabeth I, will form part of the Cultural Olympiad.

It’s clear that topping the charts is not on Albarn’s agenda and Dr Dee’s narrative is not easy to follow, at least without its accompanying visuals, but performed on a miscellany of authentically Elizabethan instruments, it’s infused with a sublime beauty and originality.